Epilogue

Paxton

One Month Later

"Okay, we're going to act surprised. Big eyes. Shocked expression. Awe. Then confusion." Fraser looked a bit like we were planning a military campaign and I couldn't help marvel at the shift.

On the boat he'd been relaxed and teasing…and had spent the entire time trying to get me tipsy because I giggled and said naughty stuff when I had fruity drinks.

But it wasn't my fault they were so good.

Once I'd realized that I could have the fun drinks and not just have to pretend to appreciate the subtleties of beer and dry wine, a whole new world had opened up.

So I'd needed to try all of them…there was no way around it.

"Kenzie's been doing very well keeping the secret." Mostly. "He's been trying to just talk about the other councils coming to visit and the portal stuff, but he keeps asking me odd questions like if it would be polite to invite strangers who were coming into town to a party I was throwing."

That made Daddy groan and his head fell back as he looked up at the sky. "They invited the visiting council members to our wedding reception?"

"Yes." Hopefully, they were nice and open-minded. "We might…we might have to pull them aside and explain why the reception is so…interesting."

Daddy laughed as he looked back at where he was going. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

Leaning over, he kissed my head and swung my hand as we wandered slowly down the suspiciously vacant main street. Even in the early evening, I'd never seen the town so quiet. "Hopefully they're not mad any longer. That might be hard to explain too."

Did Daddy not know how mad they still were?

"Um, Kenzie said they understood but we were still going to get nothing but soup for the next month…and Mr. Kennedy sent me an email that said he was very disappointed in our behavior because they'd already started planning my collaring ceremony and had to cancel their plans." I'd needed to look up what that meant and couldn't get the images that had come up out of my head.

"He what?" Daddy paused before we turned the corner to the VFW Hall, actually looking stunned. "When did this happen?"

"Oh, um. Early in the trip. You were talking to those other teachers and I checked my email when I went over to get a drink." That'd turned out to be a wonderful way to get Daddy's attention no matter what was going on around us.

Kenzie and Lorne were going to be very proud of me for figuring that out on my own.

Daddy moaned, pulling me into his arms and leaning down to nibble on my neck. "That was when you got the bright pink drink."

I went the same color as the pink drink just remembering what had happened later, but I giggled too. "You can't do that here."

He huffed and started working his way up my neck. "But you're the one who talked about the pink drink. I have very good memories of that one."

Because the bartender had clearly made that one too strong.

But Daddy had liked the results of the pink drink.

"I…" Sucking in a breath, I had to close my eyes to focus as his teeth nibbled on my ear. "I have a present for you, Daddy. For our wedding."

"Hmm…" Daddy made a curious sound before his tongue decided to explore my ear. "You have me very curious."

His whispered words sent a shiver through me and he chuckled, which made it even harder to think. "What did you get for me? Am I allowed to ask?"

Oh yes.

Shoot.

Teasing him meant I had to be able to talk.

He was so distracting. "I bought us a fancy blender, Daddy."

Oh.

I managed not to giggle as he straightened and looked at me with wide eyes. "Really?"

And the giggles escaped.

"Yes. That was what was on the porch when we got home earlier." Going straight from our flight to the reception wasn't exactly the best planning but I didn't think anyone could've kept it a secret much longer. "And…and I bought a book of drink recipes."

Heat flashed in Daddy's eyes and desire filled the bond.

"That's cheating." Wiggling away from him, I tugged on my pants. "I can't be hard when we have our reception."

My mother would see the pictures eventually.

She was going to be pissed that she hadn't been invited to the reception, but oh well, it couldn't be helped.

Daddy snickered, reaching down to squeeze the front of my pants. "Do you need some help rearranging that?"

He was so naughty.

"Come on." Doing my best to frown at him, I took his hand and pulled on it to get him walking again. "You're going to get us in trouble and we're going to be late to go see the new toys for the playdate parties."

That was what we were supposed to be doing, but we'd cleaned up to look nice because there was no way that was why they were having us go visit the VFW Hall.

Daddy sighed but nodded. "Alright, but I'm going to get a reward later for being good. You have to make a drink in the blender and then we're going to cuddle."

I was never going to stop blushing or get my erection to go down if he kept saying things like that. "You're so naughty."

The way he giggled said he wasn't sorry about it either.

"Love you." He gave me a cheek kiss and did his best to look cute. "Let's go be surprised for our party."

He was so ridiculous.

But he was right…we needed to be surprised and look happy, so I focused on non-naughty things like our to-do list. I had a lot of little things to do so that I could finish moving in with Daddy, and just thinking about being with him all the time and forever made me smile.

Shoot.

And it made me hard again.

Ugh.

His cough said at least some of that had come through the bond.

"Stop eavesdropping." I wasn't very good at remembering to turn it up and down, and Daddy had been getting a kick out of listening to all my random thoughts. "Be good or I won't open the blender tonight."

"Aww." He kissed my cheek as we finally got up to the hall that looked suspiciously empty. "Don't be mean. I'm your good boy."

No, he was not.

Shoot.

He'd done it again.

I was going to have an erection in all our reception photos.

Shoot.

Had to turn down the bond.

Finally remembering that as he started giggling, I took a deep breath. "I'm going to ignore your naughty behavior."

Because I wanted my drink later.

I had a feeling I was going to have earned it.

Daddy kissed my head and just grinned as he opened the door.

" Surprise !" The thunderous voice of nearly every adult in town had my heart skipping a beat even though I'd been mentally prepared for it.

"Oh wow." Our shocked faces must've looked very believable because they started laughing as we walked into the room. "This is…"

Slightly insane but not as bad as I'd been expecting.

" Congratulations !" Most of the room cried out again but I was pretty sure I heard a few happy birthdays and one very strange "It's a boy," so I wasn't sure everyone knew why they were at the party.

The very white party.

"The clowns aren't that scary." I remembered to whisper and not to call him Daddy, but I wasn't sure how long that would last. Something about the mix of sparkly white decorations and the brightly colored clowns that were wandering through the room made it very hard to stay completely boring.

"We've got clowns." Daddy was taking in every inch of the room as people started coming up to greet us.

"They juggle. Oh, and we have presents." A big pile of them. "I love clowns and presents."

Both boring me and not-boring-me liked presents and clowns.

And sparkly white tablecloths and ribbons and they'd even made the white flowers sparkle.

I wasn't sure we should ask about how they'd done that, though. Daddy and Boyd still hadn't figured out the beetle situation, so drawing attention to a new problem didn't seem like a good idea.

"And I love you." Kissing his cheek as everyone around us awwed and giggled, I ignored them and focused on Fraser. The man who'd changed how I saw myself. The man who'd given me a wonderful extended family of lunatics. The man who'd shown me how to play.

My mate.

~~~

Now what?

Well, we have to see what the council is up to and the clowns…and then there's the portal.